Ben Duckett ‘not only player in drinks prank’

Duckett has been given a final official warning by the ECB after dousing Anderson

AIJAZ RAHI/AP

Will Macpherson, Perth

Monday December 11 2017, 12.01am, The Times

Ben Duckett escaped being sent home from England Lions’ tour to Australia but was left to take the blame for a night out on which other players were committing the same trivial and childish offence of pouring drinks over one another.

Duckett, who was left out of England’s drawn two-day tour game against a Cricket Australia XI in Perth over the incident, did not deny dousing James Anderson. It is understood, however, that he was not the only player partaking in such activity last Thursday in The Avenue, the Perth bar where Jonny Bairstow greeted Cameron Bancroft with a gentle headbutt in October. Contrary to some reports, there was no argument between Duckett and Anderson and they continued to socialise happily together throughout the night.